Film Review | Flying Jatt

Malhotra (KK Menon) is a shrewd real estate tycoon whose team chooses locations strategically so that they can dump the pollutants into natural water bodies without any hassle.

But his new project gets stalled because of an ancient tree on the bank of a water channel which is worshipped by dwellers of Kartar Singh Colony. Widower (Amrita Singh) refuses to sell the land for hefty money and Malhotra sends his larger than life goon Raka (Nathon Jones) to evacuate the space by removing obstructions. When Raka tries to chop off the tree bebe’s son Aman (Tiger Shroff), a school martial art teacher, comes to stop him. In between the deadly scuffle, Aman gets some supernatural powers and overpowers Raka; later to discover that Raka has started getting more power from pollution. How Aman becomes a flying jatt? How his super powers, help him to stop evil designs of Malhotra and deadly evil powers of Raka? Flying Jatt’s story revolves around these basic riddles.

Amrita Singh’s lessons to her son that how a super hero behaves, stitching a super hero dress inspired from Sikh army, super hero afraid of heights and purposing a neighborhood girl gives an Indianised tinge to this superhero drama. A super hero cleaning cobwebs in his free time, stray dogs chasing superhero in dark lanes and a super hero bringing lokky for mother could happen only in Indian Super Hero film. These are few charming moments which bring smiles, but the overall screenplay is sloppy. Remo DSouza cleverly tried to weave the story around few symbols which represent Sikh faith, but he actually does not know what he is doing.

The Sikh religion’s basic premise is based on Shabad (hymn) written in their holy book Sri Guru Granth Sahib. They believe in worshiping those holy words as their living master. Sikhism does not endorse worshiping idols, trees or any kind of religious symbols at all. Yes, Sikh scriptures very much endorse the importance of Mother Nature and call upon to live a holistic life by accepting air as Guru, water as father and earth as mother. But Remo tries to portray a completely shoddy picture by showing a whole colony of Sikhs worshipping an old tree because it has a symbol of Khanda (an ancient symbol of Sikh army), thus it has some supernatural divine powers. Further, these powers deteriorate when pollution grows and the super hero who is getting his super powers through this tree fails to exercise them. Attempt to project the symbols of faith in a mythological manner went completely against the idea of the story and targeted audience could not feel connected with it. The only thing goes in favor of Remo is him explaining the real story behind 12 Baje of Sikhs with an animated explanation of history. But overall story and narrative lack substance and it is glaringly visible that he does not know the facts, but just trying to cash in the things superficially. Furthermore, he has shown a wife of a baptized Sikh enjoying alcohol freely in a broad daylight, which could have landed him in trouble if some religious bodies would have noticed, he definitely would have gotten some controversial publicity.

Few other spoilers, when Flying Jatt was getting weaker even in space how suddenly he got the extra power by simply holding down the kara in his fist and won ultimately by punching it down in Raka’s belly. When all the superlative powers of super hero failed to control super power villain, what was the logic of Aman’s younger brother fighting Raka wearing super hero dress.

Tiger Shroff, has single handedly carried the burden of this super hero saga courageously. He looks charming as a school teacher as well as a pitiable lover. Further, he wears the superhero avatar with ease and glory. Have he kept a grown up beard for his turbaned avatar he could have been the next super favorite of Punjabis around the globe. Wearing a turban with his shaved face, he looks like a tiger coming out of a saloon right after a facial. Jacqueline Fernandez has nothing to add except a pair of bare long legs, all time gleaming toothy grin and a twirling booty for a completely unwanted item number at much unwanted moment. Gaurav Pandey gives a promising performance. KK Menon looks like a plastic caricature wearing plastic ties. Amrita Singh delivers a superlative performance and seems a real super hero of the film. Akash Kaushik and Madhur Sharma’s dialogues are just passable. Vijay Kumar Arora’s cinematography is okay. VFX lacks the feel of a superhero film and editing could have been crispier. Two stars for a masala package.